10 things you need to know today

Special
paramilitary police officers at a training session in Chuzhou,
Anhui Province, China.Reuters/Stringer

Here is what you need to know.

China could be downgraded at S&P. S&P cut
its outlook for China's sovereign credit rating to negative from
stable but kept its rating at AA-. The rating agency referred to
"economic imbalances in China that are unlikely to diminish
at the pace we previously expected." S&P added:
"However, it should be noted that China's rating is a high
AA- and even if this eventually results in a downgrade, China is
still likely to be an A+ credit, which is still much better than
all emerging market peers and many middle income and developed
countries." China's yuan ended Thursday's session stronger by
0.1% at 6.459, a 3-1/2-month high.

UK final GDP improved. The UK's fourth-quarter final
gross domestic product printed 0.6%, a slight improvement from
the 0.5% gain from the prior reading. The UK's economy grew 2.1%
for 2015, up from its previous look of 1.9%. The UK's economy has
now grown for 12 straight quarters. The British pound is up 0.2%
at 1.4410.

The eurozone is still in deflation. Eurozone prices
fell 0.1% year-over-year in March, matching economists'
forecasts. The reading was a bit better than the 0.2% drop in
February, according to the latest data released by Eurostat.
Stripping out the volatile food and energy components, prices
climbed 1% YoY, an improvement from February's 0.8% YoY print.
The number, however, still remained well below the European
Central Bank's 2% target. The euro is trading at a five-month
high, up 0.4% at 1.1379.

Turkey's GDP was strong. Turkey's economy expanded
at a 5.7% YoY clip in the fourth quarter, surpassing the 5%
growth that was expected by the Bloomberg consensus. The
Financial Times reports that Commerzbank believes the report is
unlikely to have a big impact on Turkey's currency, the lira,
because it's already old data, broader EM movements are more
important, and traders are closely watching the country's central
bank. The lira hit a four-month high of 2.8203 per dollar on the
news.

Argentina is ready to end its 14-year battle with
creditors. Argentina's Senate voted 54 to 16 in
favor of settling with its bondholders. The Senate approval
follows a similar outcome in the Lower House earlier in March. A
settlement will help recently elected Argentine President
Mauricio Macri regain access to the debt market and get people
investing in Argentina again.

Tesla's
Model 3 debuts on Thursday. The Model 3's release is
highly anticipated, as the vehicle has a base price of $35,000,
making it Tesla's first vehicle that's cheap enough to be
considered "mass market." The automaker will unveil the car at an
8:30 p.m. PT event at its headquarters in Southern California.

Sharp's CEO is out. On Wednesday, Foxconn announced
it was buying a two-thirds stake in the struggling electronics
maker Sharp. On Thursday, the Yomiuri newspaper
reported, Foxconn is planning to remove Sharp's CEO and a
majority of its board.

Micron Technology reported a mixed quarter. The
chipmaker lost an adjusted $0.05 a share, which was better than
the $0.09 loss than was anticipated by the Bloomberg consensus.
Revenue tumbled 29.6% to $2.93 billion, missing the $3.05 billion
that Wall Street was expecting. "Although we continue to
navigate challenging market conditions, we are on track with
deploying our advanced DRAM and NAND technologies and improving
our cost structure," CEO Mark Durcan said in the earnings
release.

US economic data picks up a bit. Challenger Job
Cuts will cross the wires at 7:30 a.m. ET before initial and
continuing claims are released at 8:30 a.m. ET and Chicago PMI is
announced at 9:45 a.m. ET. Natural-gas inventories are set for a
10:30 a.m. release. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at
1.81%.